All programs

Studio Arts

MFA

The foundation of our MFA Studio Arts program is an individualized education that helps each student develop artistic vision and voice.

Our full-time, two-year (60-credit) MFA Studio Arts program encourages students to experiment and explore, while refining the technical and conceptual strategies in their work. Students may choose one of three concentrations, in the areas of Painting, Printmaking, or Sculpture.

A student lifts a printmaking screen while working in her studio

Students convene in a graduate studio space

Studio Arts MFA Concentrations Expand all

Students are encouraged and challenged, and through rigorous study, creative exploration, and critical discourse, each artist’s body of work deepens and evolves, along with the student’s ability to place their work in the context of contemporary practice.

MFA Painting Critique with Cecilia Vasquez.

A student looks at her laptop while presenting in a graduate level critique

Dialogue and critique are key components of an education in the studio arts, and at MassArt critique is viewed as a creative act. The rich dialogue among students, faculty, visiting artists, and critics takes place within the framework of core classes, electives, presentations, and excursions off campus. Our approach illuminates new pathways for each artist’s work, helping students to build a sustainable practice, and to develop perspective and empathy as artist citizens of the world.

Studio Arts MFA Learning Outcomes

Understand perceptual, formal, and conceptual approaches to painting and printmaking
Demonstrate technical and material proficiency in drawing, painting, and printmaking
Strengthen visual analysis and verbal articulation skills in relation to artistic practice
Understand and appreciate diverse, historical, contemporary practices, and the artist’s role in society
Develop a unique body of work that reflects authentic perspectives
Comprehend the histories of Painting and Printmaking as technological/material/conceptual developments that are tied to geography, time, and larger ideologies
Develop strategies that encompass the role of investigation and experimentation in creative practice
Demonstrate best practices in the studio, including health and safety
Acquire professional skills for sustainable studio practices beyond school

An aerial view of MassArt's Print Studio.

People wearing aprons stand around a metal table in a print studio, looking at prints.

The Printmaking department’s Master Print Series, featuring visiting artist, Kiki Smith.

A professor points and talks about a student work hanging up on a while while a student observes and listens.

Faculty member, Fred Liang observes student work in a class critique.

Majors have studio space in the Print Studio

The Printshop in the 2D Fine Arts/Printmaking department.

In our MFA Studio Arts program Sculpture concentration, you’ll explore sculptural mediums using our exceptional facilities in glass, clay, wood, and metal, and more.

MassArt’s full-time, two-year (60 credit) MFA Studio Arts program is committed to an expanded understanding of the sculptural medium.

With the support of faculty working across a range of media and disciplines, students engage in rigorous experimentation and collaboration, and the resulting work–from clay vessels to collaborative performance–reflects a highly personal investigation. Students with an expanded sense of practice are also encouraged to explore technology, performance, and the moving image as possible vehicles for their ideas.

MFA Students looking at work in their studio space.

Graduate studios

Many students standing at tables working in a woodshop.

A Wood Carving class in the Woodshop with faculty member Annie Meyer.

Studio Arts MFA Learning Outcomes

Create one’s own 21st century studio practice based upon one’s own personal vision and imagination. Understand being and artist using life and studio experience, as well as research, to support ideas
Explore, research and experiment with new media and processes
Understand a wide range of approaches and methodologies to 3D problem solving
Develop craftsmanship. Learn to safely use tools, equipment, materials and processes
Develop a sophisticated understanding of conceptual, symbolic and metaphorical issues
Understand one’s work in relation to contemporary art and art history
Develop the ability to critique peers’ work across disciplines and participate in critical dialogue with peers in their fields
Develop awareness and understanding of the diverse cultural, historical, and experiential issues expressed and inherent in one’s own artwork and in that of one’s peers
Prepare and present a professional level artists talk in conjunction with the Thesis Exhibition
Exhibit one’s work in a professional manner in the thesis exhibition. Students may also participate in other exhibitions and curatorial opportunities at the college or other venues
Assume the responsibility for development of a professional career in the arts, developing professional and vocation resources
Develop knowledge of major historical and cultural characteristics of specific times /places. Infer relationships between society and art
Recognize various types of texts used in art historical analysis, and evaluate their content and effectiveness. Use various ideas, approaches and facts in the analysis of art. Formulate, research and argue a hypothesis. Articulate verbally and in writing, theoretical and critical perspectives on art
Recognize the impact of historical works of art on contemporary art
Draw connections between various artworks, artists and concepts
Collaborate with artists in other disciplines